Say cheese!

"The happiest people are those who think the most interesting thoughts. Those who decide to use leisure as a means of mental development, who love good music, good books, good pictures, good friends, good conversation - they are the happiest people in the world. They are not only happy in themselves; they are the cause of happiness in others."

Lately I've had this love for pictures. I love taking them, I love looking at them, I even kind of enjoy being in them again. For a long time I avoided them. Mainly it was more about how I ended up looking in them. My internal mirror was covered in Vaseline because I used to think I looked good and then I'd see a picture of myself and be like reall? What the hell...why do I look like a hobbit? Anyway, now I find that if I am taking the pictures (self portraits have really become my specialty!) I can control that better and I actually like my pictures - well I do make some crazy ass faces sometimes but overall, I enjoy them.

I was adding a few new pictures to my picture wall last night and it occurred to me why I like pictures so much - it's a moment in time that made me really, really happy. It's a moment, an event, a situation that I was with others who are choosing to be with me at that very moment. I look at these pictures and the whole event comes flooding back to me and it makes me really happy. I love pictures! I love that with one snap of a button I can capture an event that will always be with me. It's funny how that saying is so true - a picture is worth a thousand words.

Sometimes I look at old pictures that I barely remember or that I wasn't a part of and I wonder what was happening at that time? What made this moment in time happen? Was it planned, spontaneous or a surprise? Did they mean to wear that? Especially old pictures from my parents. What ever happened to my grandparents pictures? They must have taken pictures at different points in their lives...what ever happened to all of those moments in time? What will happen to my pictures? When I am dead and gone no one will even care or know who these pictures are of. Will they end up in some second hand shop that some stranger will pick through someday? I can't stand the thought of them not having meaning.

It's funny - I never realized how much power a picture has. I mean I know they can evoke emotions and they have meaning but really, in the entire scheme of life they have power. Take my parents wedding pictures for instance. I bet they planned and saved and took the time to be sure they had all the "right" pictures to capture that day, that moment, their "love" and then twenty some years later they are simply shoved in a box in a garage rotting away just like their love did.

Strange how a picture at one moment in time can mean so much and after some time it just doesn't. How can something go from meaning so much to just being a simple colored image of people?

One of my favorite pictures I own was taken in October 0f 1982 in Disney World. It's a picture of my grandfather in his golf shirt and polyester mustard colored pants with his hat on. He always wore a hat and he always wore a golf shirt....like a polo shirt - he may have been a trend setter in his days! He's standing with Goofy and he's smiling and there is this sort of calm joy about this picture. It's this one second in time where I'm sure my grandmother said "Miles go stand by Goofy and smile". I'm sure he grumbled the entire time he walked over to stand next to Goofy and put his arm around him and for this one brief second in time - he stopped, smiled and just was. He appears to be happy, healthy and really enjoying his time. This is the moment in time this snapshot captured.....it secured for me 27 years later this sense that at this very moment in time, in October of 1982, everything was right and good and happy. A mere 12 years later he would be dead from cancer.

We just never know when time will change - that's why I like pictures. I like the joy and the moments in time they secure, the emotions or feelings they can convey to me years later. I think I need to take more.